Stewart J. Eisenberg has been working on the cases for well over a year now. He has not won any settlements for his clients, nor has he seen any of the defendants go behind bars.
He is, after all, going up against a pretty formidable opponent — the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Eisenberg, a senior partner at Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Schleifer, Weinstein & Winkler at 1634 Spruce St., is handling more than a dozen cases of alleged victims who say archdiocesan priests sexually abused them years ago.
A few months ago, the attorney received a call from another man who claimed abuse.
The man, who to this point has remained anonymous and refused interview requests, claims he was sexually abused by the Rev. Joseph Schnorr while he attended elementary school at the now-defunct St. Aloysius Parish in Grays Ferry.
The attorney said the abuse began in 1984, when the alleged victim was in third grade, and continued until 1986.
"He never told anyone about it. He tried to bury it," Eisenberg said.
The lawyer said the only way his client was able to escape further abuse was by hiding a tuition check his mother gave him to take to school.
The dispute over the missing check caused the student to get kicked out of the school, but he said he couldn’t leave the deep emotional and mental scars behind, even after moving to another parish in South Philly.
"He tried to move on past it all, but it’s not the type of thing you just forget. He’s been tormented by the whole ordeal," Eisenberg said.
The attorney said he just began trying to track down Schnorr to serve him a subpoena.
"In a few weeks, we’ll know for sure about where he is or even if he’s still alive," Eisenberg said.
A meeting about the case is scheduled for July 14 at the attorney’s office with archdiocesan representatives.
Today, the attorney is scheduled to argue against a separate motion that the archdiocese filed requesting that sexual-abuse claims be dismissed due to a statute of limitations.
The archdiocese’s statute of limitations for victims to bring their cases forward is two years from the time the alleged abuse began, Eisenberg said.
"They said that if our clients knew that what was going on was wrong, they should have come forward right away," he said. "My argument there is that our clients were told by their priests that what happened was not wrong, and that it was a secret between them and God."
The current motion would affect Eisenberg’s dozen-plus clients, including an alleged victim from St. Monica’s Parish and another man who has South Philly roots.
Rocco Parisi was a student at St. Monica’s in 1976 when he was befriended by the Rev. Joseph P. Gallagher (no relation to the Rev. Joseph Gallagher who is now pastor of St. Richard’s Parish).
Parisi said the abuse started when he was in seventh grade and going through a tough time at home. The priest offered him some solace by taking him to shoot pool and to the movies.
"I confided in him," Parisi said softly. "I thought he was a good guy."
The alleged victim said the relationship soon became sexual and lasted until he was a sophomore in high school.
"He destroyed my life," said the 45-year-old, who still lives on the 1700 block of Ritner Street, across from St. Monica’s Church.
He said he was afraid to come forward with his story when the abuse first happened because he was uncertain of how others would respond. Parisi said the abuse and subsequent repression led him to turn to alcohol and drugs, demons he still struggles with today.
Nick Servano tells a similar story of abuse, embarrassment and despair.
The South Philly native, whose family moved to Ninth and Hunting Park when he was a young child, said he was abused by several priests while he attended Cardinal Dougherty High School in the early 1960s.
Servano, 56, said the abuse began when he was a freshman and continued past his graduation.
He claims the archdiocese knew that a few of the priests at Cardinal Dougherty were pedophiles, but reacted only by transferring them to other parishes.
Archdiocesan spokesperson Cathy Rossi declined to respond to Servano’s comments or on the cases in general due to the pending litigation.
Eisenberg said while it’s been proven that other churches throughout the country have hidden or moved abusive priests, the archdiocese has not yet granted him access to its documents to see whether that was the case in Philadelphia.
Servano claims his abuse started out at the age of 14 with "rubbing, touching and threats." By the time he was a senior, it grew to include oral sex.
"I didn’t know any better," Servano said, sighing. "Priests were revered back then. Who would have believed me?"
Like Parisi, Servano said his abuse led him into a life of drugs and alcohol. He has since found sobriety.
Servano said hearing about prominent abuse cases in the news prompted him to come forward.
"All of those repressed memories came back to me, and I started to think that I deserved something, too," he said of the money awarded to victims in other court cases.
Eisenberg said he and his clients have had little cooperation from the archdiocese.
"The archdiocese has been totally obstinate. They want all of these victims to just go away," he said.
The archdiocese, however, sees it differently.
"We have victim-assistance coordinators in place to assist victims with the healing process," Rossi said. "We also established a charter to prevent future abuse from occurring."
Eisenberg contends those measures are not enough to make up for previous sins.
"We want to hold the archdiocese accountable for their actions. These people had their lives ruined, and [the archdiocese] wants to maneuver its way out of dealing with them," he said.
The lawyer added there might be more alleged victims in the area that he hasn’t heard from yet, noting some people have relayed their stories directly to the grand-jury investigation connected to his initial lawsuits.
